Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK nationals are awaiting repatriation as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Nigel Adams
Helping British nationals who need and want to return to the UK is one of the Government's highest priorities. Since the outbreak in Wuhan, we estimate that over 1.3 million people have returned to the UK via commercial routes - the majority supported by our work to keep vital routes open. Additionally we have brought home over 31,000 people on 146 flights organised by the Foreign Office from 27 countries and territories.
We estimate that low tens of thousands of British travellers remain overseas. We continue to work round the clock to keep them informed of options to return and support them where necessary when they choose to take those options, whether that is commercial routes or special Her Majesty's Government charter flights.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many EU Civil Protection Mechanism flights the UK has participated in since the start of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The UK has activated the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism (CPM) on several occasions, as part of our international response to coronavirus, which has helped repatriate British travellers and EU citizens. As of 24 April, the EU estimated that around 2,000 UK citizens had been repatriated under the CPM.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many EU Civil Protection Mechanism flights the Government has agreed to participate in since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The UK has activated the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism (CPM) on several occasions, as part of our international response to coronavirus, which has helped repatriate British travellers and EU citizens. As of 24 April, the EU estimated that around 2,000 UK citizens had been repatriated under the CPM.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many repatriation flights for UK nationals have been arranged since the start of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Nigel Adams
Since 31 January, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has repatriated over 31,000 people on 146 flights from 27 countries and territories. We estimate that over 1.3 million people have returned to the UK via commercial routes - the majority supported by our work to keep vital routes open.
The UK Government continues to work with the airline industry and host governments across the world to help bring back British travellers to the UK as part of the plan announced by the Foreign Secretary on 30 March - with up to £75 million available for special charter flights to priority countries, focused on helping the most vulnerable travellers.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK nationals have been repatriated since the restrictions on travel during the covid-19 pandemic were introduced.
Answered by Nigel Adams
Since 31 January, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has repatriated over 31,000 people on 146 flights from 27 countries and territories. We estimate that over 1.3 million people have returned to the UK via commercial routes - the majority supported by our work to keep vital routes open.
The UK Government continues to work with the airline industry and host governments across the world to help bring back British travellers to the UK as part of the plan announced by the Foreign Secretary on 30 March - with up to £75 million available for special charter flights to priority countries, focused on helping the most vulnerable travellers.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK embassies are open as of 20 April 2020.
Answered by Nigel Adams
On 20 April 2020, 98.6% of our Posts were open. 113 of these Posts are British Embassies (this number does not include British High Commissions, Overseas Territories or Posts which are subordinate to Embassies). Four Posts have closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic: our Consulate Generals in Wuhan and Chongqing and the Embassy offices (which do not hold Embassy status) in N'djamena and Goma.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK consulates remain open during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Nigel Adams
On 20 April 2020, 98.6% of our Posts were open. 37 of these are British Consulate Generals and 16 are British Consulates. These numbers include only those Posts classed as Consulate Generals or Consulates, and do not include other types of overseas office or representation, such as Honorary Consulates.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK embassy and consulate staff are self-isolating as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The FCO does not hold data centrally on the number of Embassy and Consulate staff who are self-isolating because of COVID-19 symptoms.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK nationals have contacted UK embassies and consulates for help since covid-19 related travel restrictions were introduced.
Answered by Nigel Adams
Since 16 March, FCO staff in Embassies, Consulates, and our consular contact centres, together with our commercially contracted call centres, have handled almost 105,000 telephone enquiries. In addition they have dealt with over 3,500 written enquiries per week.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many EU Civil Protection Mechanism flights the Government has signed up to participate in as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The UK has activated the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism (CPM) on several occasions, as part of our international response to coronavirus, which has helped repatriate British Nationals and EU citizens. As of 16 April, the EU estimates that 1,837 British Nationals have been repatriated under the CPM.
Stranded British travellers and their families are our priority. One of the conditions of activating the CPM is to allow EU nationals on board as well. In regions where there have been a large number of British people who wish to return to the UK that has not always been possible. The CPM would, therefore, not be relevant as we haven't been able to offer seats to EU nationals.